I have struggled with time management, fatigue and the kids schedule. It is so hard to know how to spend any of my free time since I really do not have anytime, anymore. I have thought a long time about ending the blog, but it is something that I have done the entire life of each of the kids, so I will see how much longer I will be able to manage to update this blog. I think even a monthly blog, like I have been doing should be manageable and better than nothing. We will see.
Another sad thing I realized, is that I hardly take any pictures of the kids anymore. We are so incredibly busy with work, school, swim and other activities, we hardly "do" anything else. When we do other things, it is nice to just be, I don't think about taking pictures because I am happy just being with them.
This picture of Rubix hiding behind the curtain was actually taken on New Years. I can't remember why he was, but it was fun to see him being silly.
Rubix and I, often work on math and school work, while Daddy works with Phoenix and Axel just gets his homework done on Saturday mornings. I noticed Rubix's abs and just had to take a picture of his little muscles.
Keith and I ride together often 3 to 4 times per week. We had a day where it was so breath taking at the top of the hill that we had to stop and take pictures.
The bed of clouds was really picture worthy.
Unfortunately, we never came out of the clouds once we descended into it and the deep fog/clouds followed us all the way home. It was eerie and felt like it was terribly late out when it was in the middle of the afternoon on a Friday.
The boys hair often seems too long and the only way I can convince Rubix and Axel of cutting it, is when their hair starts impeding their ability to see while swimming. I was still in the convincing stage in this picture and I asked Rubix to brush his hair. Phoenix and I thought it was cute that he only brushed the front of his hair and missed the back, hence the noteworthy picture.
A patient of mine let Keith and I come over and pick a few dozen persimmons. WE have been enjoying persimmons cookies, bread, pancakes and waffles for nearly 2 months now! I love how the kids go along with all of my favorite treats. It was a nice break from all of the zucchini bread this summer and pumpkin treats this fall.
In January, the kids entered their first big USA swim race at Santa Clara International Swim Center. Axel raced the mile and Phoenix the 500 on Friday night and all 3 kids did 4 races on Sunday morning. Here they are after a fun day of racing.
Here is Axel doing the 50 Fly. I have videos of the other kids but I have to crop them because the files are too big.
Here is Phoenix's 50 Fly. You can see her do the first 25 yards.
Here is Rubix's 50 Fly. Again, I cropped it so you can see the first 25. He was disqualified on his way back because he was tired and snuck in a couple of flutter kicks in between his dolphin kicks. We were really proud of him despite the DQ.
For Phoenix's birthday, she wanted her ears pierced. We ended up going to a woman's house and getting her ears pierced on her front porch. She use to own a shop in downtown Los Gatos, but because of the pandemic she had to close down. She had amazing reviews despite the store closer and it felt safer than bringing her to the big mall. I actually do not think that Phoenix or Rubix have ever been to Valley Fair Mall (except to eat at the Cheese Cake Factory one time).
She chose little Rubies.
She was so excited but it hurt she said for hours. :)
You may be able to notice in the picture above that Phoenix has a second row of teeth coming in on the top and she already has two rows on the bottom. She actually has permanent teeth that can't come up because she doesn't have enough room and they are going into the roots of her two front bottom teeth. The orthodontist recommends serial tooth extraction. She is likely going to get 4 baby teeth pulled and then she will likely get 4 permanent teeth pulled, one in each quadrant. He thinks that this will be her entire phase one of orthodontic care and then she will need braces for only 18 months in middle school. Crazy huh! No teeth expander and head gear like Axel had to go through for a couple of years. Hard to know what is better, but we will find out what it will be like for Phoenix in the coming months once we get her first round of teeth pulled.
Phoenix's birthday was on a Friday so she had school, swim practice and piano lessons. After 6:30pm we were able to enjoy dinner, opening of presents and a milk shake!
She loved the cards and gifts that she received.
She was excited to have gifts to open, so thank you to family who sent them. I had prepared her that her gift was her ear piercing, so it was nice for her to be grateful and surprised to receive more gifts.
And a yummy milk shake with whipped cream and strawberries on top.
Auntie bought Phoenix these cute joggers. I happened to have a similar pair of pink joggers so I decided to dress like her on Saturday after her birthday.
She was able to have one friend, Angela, come over to celebrate her birthday.
They were so cute together. They played outside until dark. We froze while eating dinner outside and then we came in to watch Sing2 and open her gift.
Angela was very generous and bought a very nice Lego set for Phoenix. They had fun building it together .
We had to make popcorn for the movie. Making it and watching it pop was very exciting!
We all enjoyed watching Sing 2. It was fantastic.
Although it was a little late for Rubix and he was quite tired. I can't believe he managed to stay up until 9pm to finish watching it.
The family absolutely loves and uses the big white board that Daddy got for Christmas. We use it almost every day to study and go over homework. Here he is practicing his spelling words and writing a sentence that I was dictating to him.
Last weekend we took the kids to a park for a couple of hours. Axel was at school doing math so we decided to go to the park. El Quito park had their field closed so we drove past Tyler's house and stopped by. The girs, Zoe and Jade walked with us to San Thomas park and played for an hour before they had to go home for a class. After they left Phoenix and Rubix noticed the play structure and went to play on the swings and slide. It was so much fun for them to just play.
Our neighbors texted us that they left two lemons on our front porch for Axel as they know Axel likes to bake. Axel came walking in from the front porch laughing and holding these two lemons. He said, "Mom, I don't think these are big enough."
We are headed to San Diego this weekend. We are looking forward to some restful fun. When we get back we have a swim meet, so President's Day is going to be well needed to recover from vacation and lots of driving travel. Until next time!
